Three employees were let go from HWP Group after its towing service was outsourced.

And the president and chief executive officer of the company has cited current strained economy as the main reason for the decision.

"As the economy continues to slow, we made the difficult decision to outsource our towing service," Jonathan Brewin said. "It will continue to be available to customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, outsourcing the towing function simply made more financial sense.

"Customers with the Smart Choice extended-maintenance programme can continue to benefit from the towing option."

The service was outsourced to Quik Response, a company which has two people and has been in business for nearly four years.